False Alarm

Wednesday, I got myself together early in the morning, packed my substantially heavy film camera, and headed off to the tour bus meeting point to go to Auschwitz-Birkenau.  I still didn't know for sure if Ambrozy had gotten my ticket switched or not, I was just banking that he had.  After all, I was just one person to add.

Right before I got to the bus stop I needed, Ambrozy called me.  Apparently the ticket I had booked didn't actually exist.  There were no afternoon tours.  It also turned out that the bus left earlier than we thought in the morning, and so I had already missed that day's tour.  They said I could join the next morning's tour.

I just wish that hadn't already posted on Facebook that I was going to Auschwitz.

You can't follow up a status like that with "Just kidding"...

I had originally planned to leave Krakow for Vienna on Thursday.  However, I had just received a message from my host in Vienna saying something came up and he had to cancel.  (I was actually pretty excited about this host, as he was from Egypt and I thought he would be interesting to talk to) So really, the one more night in Krakow worked out kind of perfectly.  It gave me one more day to find host, or only two nights stay in a hostel in Vienna in case I didn't find one.

Since I want going on the trip that morning, that left me allll day in Krakow. Literally though.  I had dropped Ambrozy's keys in his mail box when I left, and he had the keys to his mail box. 

I walked into the old town, bought a coffee, found a bench, and ate my bread and orange that I had packed in my purse.  It wasn't even ten yet and it was already a gorgeous morning.  First bit of sunshine I'd seen since Copenhagen.

I spent my first few hours or so looking at all the little market stalls.  They weren't just set up in the market place building either.  The empty square we'd been standing in last night was transformed into a huge market by day. 

They sold everything.

Foods of course. Meats, cheeses, pastries, candies, perogies and kielbasa. Wooden handmade objects.  Chess sets, children's toys, jewelery, home decorations, etc.  Random assortments of traditionally decorated Polish dishware. Another specialty of Poland I saw everywhere was amber.  Amber is mined in the northern part of Poland, and you could find it everywhere.  Big chunks, little stones, crystal clear or bubbly inside, ever shade of golden amber along with a beautiful green shade.  The craftsmanship was in how the stone was set, cut, and polished, as there was no shortage of the raw materials.

I had taken out an amount of złote in Warsaw to last me my whole time in Poland.  Due to exchange fees, I decided that if I hadn't spent to much by the end if the day, that I would come back and buy something for myself, just to get rid of the złote that I obviously wouldn't be spending in a concentration camp.

I ended up buying a ring at the end of the day.

Apparently, as Krakow was built upon throughout the centuries. It was literally built upon.  Like the fourteenth century city square was located a few meters below the existing one.

And you could visit it too.

There was a museum located underneath the square, with the entrance located in the market place building.  There you could see examples of actual seven hundred year old merchant goods. Jewelry, tools, pottery, toys, coins, etc.  They even had excavated old stone market stalls, exactly where they stood when they were first built. 

Very cool.

I also stumbled across an at museum featuring mostly the works of Polish artist Stanisław Wyspiański .  He was primarily a portrait artist, using chalk and pastels.  I really really liked his work.  He was very good at portraying emotions in his portraits.  I liked his wrinkly old people ones especially.

I highly recommend a Google image search of his name.

The rest of the day I wandered around the old town within the Plante garden, as well as the old Jewish district outside of it.

Apparently some king or another was sick of the Jews being so wealthy, he kicked then out of the city center, and they continued conducting good business and formed their own little district.  Ambrozy had given me a statistic on the number if Jews actually left living there.  I don't remember the exact number he said, but it wasn't very many.  (I think at this point a joke was made about Auschwitz still being fully functional. We're going to hell, I know) 

The old Jewish district was basically just a lot of old pretty buildings. There were a couple synagogues, but I didn't go in because, unlike most churches and cathedrals, synagogues charged an entrance fee (insert joke). 

When Ambrozy finally text me saying he was off work, I was having a coffee back in the old town.  We agreed that I would just meet him back at his place.  I told him I would take the bus and see him in about 15 minutes.

Three hours later I made it to his flat.

I really don't want to talk about it.

It was a combination of misreading the bus schedule, misreading the tram stops, and not knowing which side of the freaking street to stand on.  In my defense, opposing bus stops were not located directly across from each other, so finding the right stop going the right way proved to be nearly impossible.

Whatever. I said I didn't want to talk about it.

Ambrozy didn't ask too many questions when he saw my face either.

That night we were going to the weekly Krakow couch surfing meeting.  I had never actually been to one before.  I was imagining ten people in a white walled room talking in Polish one at a time.

Then, Ambrozy told me they reserve an entire bar for the meeting.

Okay. You talked me into it.

We get there, and Ambrozy (who goes every week) introduces me to a few people and gets into his own conversations with friends.  Meanwhile, I'm on a bar stool trapped in a mildly boring conversation with a Krakow local.  Don't get me wrong, he was a nice guy and all.  It's just that while his English was pretty good, it looked like it took a great deal of effort to speak the language.  There was a permanent angry look of constipation on his face that made it hard to take him seriously. 

I eventually escaped (thank evolution for small lady bladders) and made my way back to the main room just in time for the night's entertainment.

One of the members was going to levitate four people.

This magic truck turned out to be four chicks laying on each other's laps in a self-sustaining circle.

That's not the interesting part.

The interesting part was the guy doing the "trick" was a Canadian in his mid to late forties.  Wait for it.  He's been living in Krakow for quite a while, and was known to the CS community.

He's also dating a twenty three year old Polish girl.

I'm not even going to touch this one.

I'm just wondering, is Canadian exotic in Poland?

Later, I got involved in a great conversation with a few Polish locals.  I was happy to find out that my humor translated here.

Ambrozy and I headed back around midnight.

I didn't want to be hungover for the very sobering experience I would have the next morning.

I'm running out of Polish salutations to end my blogs with...
Tegs